Table of Contents

The Catalog quick start guide

If your new to The Catalog NoSQL Database, than you are in right place. Here are the main steps from downloading to launching a database instance of The Catalog.

Download

At first go to The Catalog's official website and choose the preferred version (x64 or x86) under the “Download” button from the menu bar.

Install

Frankly, there is no need of installation, because we the developers believe that littering Window's registry with garbage created by the installers is pointless. Therefore, just put the downloaded file in the directory where you would like to use The Catalog. At first run the software will create all the content that will be critical for future use.

Create databases

So, if the executable is in right place, then we can continue with database creation. Start Catalog.exe and a popup window would appear. Type in a desired password ('abc123' for now) to protect the server against unauthorized intruders:

Then the manager window appears:

Then right click on the panel on the left and a context menu will show up. Choose “New”:

A window should pop up. Input the preferred database name and path (recommended pointing to the csrv directory). Don't be surprised, a newly created directory will show up with the name of the preferred database at the end of the path. It is always prefixed with “Store_”. Click save at the end:

When it's done our database (in this case the 'TEST' database) will show up on the left. Click on it, to activate the properties for further configuration:

Click on floppy icon next to the “Password” textbox. In the popup window input the desired password (in our case '12345'):

In the port panel next to the “Data port” textbox click on the floppy icon again. Type the desired port number.

Data port is used for communication between the server and the client. The commands and the data lying in the database are transmitted through this port.

Do the same for “File port”. Uploading and downloading files are realized through this port.

At the end hit “Install” button. Two popup windows should appear informing us that the server and the collector service have been installed correctly. Than hit the “Start” button to start up the database server.

For more information (for example: how to use mirroring or IP filtering) please read the Advanced guide.

Populate with data

Now, your database service is installed. It is time to populate the database with data. To achieve this you have to use your own manager or the official Catalog Manager.
At first, open up Catalog Manager (catmanager.exe):

The manager has two main tabs. Command tab is the CLI, the View tab is the GUI. Command tab rather used by developers, because the output is the same as the return string value of the Script(..) method in .NET API. If you are a developer you may want to get to know about the keywords.
The second half of the screen is a common part. All file upload/download related operations are visualized there:

On the View tab there is an extra area for a tree view indicating the table structure of the database. Under the tree view localized another tree view indicating attached tables structure of a seleceted table:

Because the CLI is based on the keywords, therefore the guide will only demonstrate the usage of the View tab. To connect to the database right click on the empty tree view panel on the top left and from the context menu choose “Connect”:

In the next window type in the data and the file ports (in our case it was: “20000” for data port and “25000” for file port):

If connection attempt was successful than the following information can be seen on the top left corner of the tab (take a look at both tabs's name), else the view stays the same:

You can see, that our databse is empty. Let's create a new table. Right click on the tree view and choose “New table” option from the context menu. In the popup window enter the table's name (in this case: “table01”), then select it.

While table is selected the tree view on the bottom left panel shows all the links related to it. “[BASE]” indicates, that the table is linked to the root, so there are no parent tables. The hash value in brackets is the table's unique name, because there may be multiple tables named as “table01” assigned/linked to other tables.
While “table01” selected you can edit it's content. But before, you should adjust the grid itself. To achieve this right click on a cell and from the context menu choose “Grid/Set grid”:

In the popup menu enter the number of columns as “FieldCount” and number of rows as “RecordCount”. According to this example enter the following:

You can see that you have 5×10 cells to work with. Click on a cell and press enter to edit. You may realize after editing that the title of the window has been changed indicating that the table have to be saved. To achieve this hit Ctrl+S on the keyboard. According to this example enter the following:

That's all! You have created your first table and populated it with data.
For more information about the usage of the manager please read the advanced CatManager guide.